Regular Home Owner Grant

The home owner grant reduces the amount of property taxes you pay each year on your principal residence.

The regular grant (also called the basic grant) amount for people under the age of 65 is $570 in the Capital Regional District, Greater Vancouver Regional District and the Fraser Valley Regional District. For all other areas of the province the amount is $770.

You must pay at least $350 in property taxes before claiming the home owner grant to help fund services such as road maintenance and police protection. This amount may be less if you qualify for the home owner grant as a senior, veteran or person with a disability.

Your Principal Residence

For the purpose of claiming the home owner grant, you can have only one principal residence.

If you own more than one home, you can't designate which one is your principal residence.

Your principal residence is the usual place that you make your home. It’s where you live and conduct your daily affairs, like paying bills and receiving mail, and it’s generally the residence used in your government records for things like your income tax, medical services plan, driver's licence and vehicle registration.

To qualify for the home owner grant, your principal residence must be taxed as an improvement.

You must occupy your principal residence when you apply for the home owner grant. However, if you meet certain requirements you may still be able to apply for the grant if you:

Grant Threshold

The grant threshold is the maximum value of an assessed or partitioned property where home owners are eligible to claim the home owner grant. The threshold amount is reviewed every year to ensure that the value of at least 91% of homes in B.C. are eligible for the grant.

The grant threshold is $1,650,000. You may be able to claim the full grant amount if your property has an assessed or partitioned value of $1,650,000 or less.

If you meet all requirements but your property’s assessed or partitioned value is over $1,650,000, you may qualify for the grant at a reduced amount.

The grant is reduced by $5 for each $1,000 of assessed value over $1,650,000. This means the grant isn’t available for properties assessed over $1,764,000 ($1,804,000 in a northern and rural area).

Partitioned Value

Partitioning your property value may enable you to claim the home owner grant if:

You previously couldn’t, or could only claim a reduced grant, because of the high assessed value of your property, and

Your property consists of your principal residence and at least one separate residence

The partitioned value of a property is the property’s assessed value divided by the number of residences on that property. To qualify, each residence must have cooking, sleeping, bathroom and living room facilities.

Laneway homesand multi-family dwellings like a duplex, triplex and fourplex qualify as separate residences. A suite in your principal residence doesn’t qualify as a separate residence.

Buying or Selling Your Property

If you are buying or selling a property, there are other factors that will determine the amount that you can claim for the home owner grant.

If you purchased your property during the current tax year, you may be eligible for the home owner grant if you meet the following requirements:

The previous owner didn’t pay all of the property taxes

The previous owner didn’t claim the grant

You didn’t receive a grant this year for another home

You’re occupying the property when you apply for the grant

The home owner grant that you’re eligible to claim will be applied against only the property taxes that the previous owner didn’t pay. Contact the office that issued the property tax notice for more information on how much you can claim for your grant.

Apply

You must apply for the home owner grant each year to receive it. Only one grant can be claimed for a property each year.